In the first part of an examination of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multi-channel Campaign Management (MCCM) for 2013, we saw that the market is characterized by a re-architecting of platforms by established vendors and the addition of new functionality by the newer ones. However, even with the new functionalities and cloud offerings, the new entrants still didn't impact on the Leaders Quadrant consisting of IBM, Oracle (Seibel), SAS and Teradata.

Leader Quadrant Unchanged

The new ones, Gartner says, tend to look at precise and limited sets of functionality usually in the cloud and targeting specific kinds of enterprises.

The older ones, while perhaps a little slower to react to changing conditions by virtue of their size, offer a much wider set of functions, which probably explains why the Leader’s quadrant continues to be dominated by established vendors.

As in previous years, the criteria for inclusion in the Magic Quadrant for MCCM are tough and for a vendor to push its way into the Leader’s quadrant is a task that is likely to take a number of years.

Even to get into the Magic Quadrant in the first place is tough and it’s not uncommon for companies to slip off the grid like Oracle RightNow this year, which failed to meet the minimum requirement of 15 new customer wins over the past 12 months.

Gartner is also adamant about the kind of functionality that vendors need to offer. There are two major groups:

1. Advanced Analytics and Execution

Campaign optimization: The ability to coordinate one or multiple campaigns while coordinating and balancing multiple constraints.

Event triggering: Ability to detect and act upon an event that affects the relationship with a customer.

Real-time recommendations: The ability to combine the most up-to-date information from all channels before a customer interaction, as well as taking information from that interaction.

Gartner also says that it considers specific, advanced digital marketing functions like Web analytics, social analytics, social marketing and search marketing and puts heavy emphasis on visionary offerings that include functionality in emerging areas like inbound, social, or mobile marketing. They also set strategic directions for the rest, or demonstrate innovative capabilities.

2. Ability to Execute

The ability to execute, or successfully carry out the business of developing and selling products, is also high on the list of things that Gartner looks at. Under this umbrella, MCCM vendors must be able to demonstrate the following:

Product/Service: Product capabilities was one of the most important elements for inclusion in the table.

Overall Viability: This is the financial health of the company, including its product line. It looks at the history of the company and its commitment to continued development in the MCCM space.

Sales Execution/Pricing: Looks at the pricing and effectiveness of the vendors’ sales channel.

Customer Experience: This looks at the relationship between vendors and their clients. For MCCM vendors, good CXM would seem to be essential.

Before looking at the Leaders, just a quick re-cap on what makes a Leader in this Quadrant. In this case, Gartner says, Leaders are those vendors that show better overall campaign management performance consisting of both basic and advance campaigns. They have high visibility and a strategic plan for driving the business forward.

MCCM Leaders

In alphabetical order, then, here are this year’s Leaders:

IBM

Formerly known as Unica, IBM’s Cross-Channel Marketing Optimization solution is part of the wider Smarter Commerce strategy that it has been building over the past few years and also includes other notable acquisitions like Coremetrics and Sterling. Its MCCM offering covers a number of industries.

Strengths:

Market reach: It has the benefit of IBM’s global reach and a potential software market that was worth US$ 104 billion in 2012.

Digital-marketing-focused deployment option: IBM Cross-Channel Marketing Optimization was released in 2012 with Unica dumped from the title. It focused on real-time marketing, marketing performance and usability.

Road map: Its goals for this year include real-time email and digital marketing as well as continued integration with the rest of IBM’s portfolio.

Cautions

Competition: It needs to continue to publicize its vision in the light of rising competition from other markets like Web CMS and even email marketing products.

Support: Some of Gartner’s customers have said that customer support has been quite slow.

Midmarket: Needs to cater more for midmarket as B2C and B2B vendors continue to make progress in the space.

Oracle (Siebel)

With Oracle (Seibel), the ability of its MCCM offering to scale and integrate with other Seibel products has pushed it into the Leaders quadrant. Gartner advises buyers to consider Oracle Seibel for a complete CRM if you are already a Seibel user.

Strengths

Growth: Although it doesn't provide figures, it says it continues to grow its market share.

Improvements: Last year it introduced Seibel UI Framework that is both browser- and device- neutral. This greatly improved the user experience. It also enhanced its Campaign Performance Optimization offering which should improve the performance of large-scale, multiwave campaigns.

Road map: Deployments this year target the social market following the integration from the Virtue buy. Early enhancements will support the integrated social engagement.

Cautions

Digital marketing: It needs to increase support for digital marketing, including social and mobile campaigns.

Support: Gartner says that some of the people that contacted it reported an inconsistent support experience. There were also reports of delayed bug fixes.

Road map clarity: Oracle also offers a number of marketing applications as well as Seibel, which causes confusion among possible buyers

SAS

If you are looking for advanced analytics within MCCM, then SAS should be shortlisted. It offers best-in-class marketing analytics and offers solutions targeted at specific verticals including financial services.

Strengths

Viability: Has reported high double-digit growth for campaign management revenues and has solid basic and advanced analytics capabilities.

Analytics: In 2012, it focused on developing real-time capabilities offering testing and treating management as well as improved email and mobile marketing integration.

Road map: In May this year it launched Customer Intelligence 6, which offers co-deployment of the previously separate marketing optimization. New releases for most of SAS's MCCM modules are planned throughout 2013.

References: Its reference customers said that it has comprehensive functionality and an integrated data structure.

Cautions

Campaign management: References consider SAS tools to be tools for power users and for advanced analytics rather than something for campaign management.

Troubleshooting: References also said there were faults that were hard to find and often difficult to fix.

Digital marketing thought leadership: It needs to develop its digital marketing strategy particularly around Web analytics and social offerings.

Teradata

According to Gartner, Teradata is really for large B2C organizations that are looking for a MCCM offering. It focuses on the financial services, media, transport and telecoms industries.

Strengths

Viability: It grew revenues by 14% year-on-year even if this was down from growth of 22% in 2011. Teradata and Aprimo have unified their campaign management offerings under the Teradata brand.

Changes: It improved its UI and added multi-database support, such as the ability to read Oracle. It also bought eCircle and is currently integrating its email marketing offerings. Finally, it released Real-Time Interaction Manager 3.0 for stand-alone inbound marketing for both cloud and on-premises deployment.

Road map: This year it plans to offer support for Oracle and SQL Server as well as customized workflows between campaign management and MRM. It also intends to expand its digital marketing center.

Cautions

Classic channels: References said that it needs to evolve beyond the classic channels of direct mail and email, and needs to make significant investment in digital marketing.

Support: Some reference customers noted that support is patchy and that the company relies on more expensive services to resolve this issue.

Road map: Teradata needs to deliver a complete, combined offering by the end of 2014.

And that’s the Leaders for 2013. However, it is important to keep in mind the caveat that Gartner always provides with these reports, which advise potential buyers to look at all the player in all four quadrants before choosing. It may well be that what the Leaders are offering is not for your enterprise.

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